galapygosfandomcom-20200214-history
Jonah Temple
'''Jonah Temple '''is a retired human explorer and is now a professor of history at Temple Hill College in White City, and a prominent scholar of Ancient Anubi studies. He is famous in the academic community for rising from the position of a bastard son to mounting the first documented expedition to Ancient Anubi. To this day he remains an influential figure in the study of the region. Biography Most of what is known about Jonah's early life comes from his memoirs which he wrote in 1456. Jonah was born in 1385 OCA in White City. He was the illegitamite son of an Orcan woman who lived near the college and a Corganan professor who worked at the college. To avoid scandal, the professor paid off Jonah's mother handsomely. She wisely invested the payment in furthering Jonah's education. From an early age, Jonah expressed great interest in academic pursuits, something he always attributed to his father. He eventually apprenticed to a scholar from the College. At the age of 12, Jonah took the last name "Temple" to reflect his birth father and his birthplace. By the age of 15, Jonah had developed an intense fascination with Anubi, and had already absorbed all of the meager material on the subject available in the College library. At this time, he came up with a novel idea: mount a new expedition to explore the region and thoroughly catalogue it. In 1401, the gangly 16-year-old Jonah presented his idea to the College's board of academics. He was almost laughed out of the chamber, but the board was silenced by Jonah's presentation and intense passion for the project. The board approved funding of an expedition by a vote of 7-2. Jonah personally selected the crew from among the College staff, forming a party of about 70 people to explore the region. In 1403 when Jonah was just 18, the expedition was finally ready and left for Anubi in Tidefall of that year. The first expedition was an unmitigated disaster. The explorers, including Jonah, were simply not ready for what lay before them. The desert heat claimed ten men before the expedition even reached Anubi, by which point most of the native Badlander guides they had hired had abandoned the expedition, saying it was cursed. Once they entered the temple-cities, over a dozen men were killed and more were injured by deadly traps hidden in the temples. After several months of this, Jonah was forced to admit defeat and traveled back to White City with the remaining members of the crew. It took over five years for Jonah to convince the College to finance a second expedition. Leaving in 1409, this second journey brought along multiple weapons and trap experts which helped to dramatically reduce the number of injuries and deaths on the trip. Jonah recovered thousands of lines of scrolls from the temples, providing the bulk of what is known about Anubi today. Jonah went back to Anubi five more times over the ensuing years, before finally retiring to the College in 1445 OCA at the age of 60. He now serves as a senior professor of history and has published dozens of books about Ancient Anubi history, his travels, and his life. He is a popular figure among Corgana's Orcan community. Attributes Jonah is well-versed in many fields of world history, but is mostly knowledgable about Anubi, the Badlands, and West Corganan history. He also possesses high-level knowledge in natural history, science, alchemy, mathematics, and geography, and is an amateur cartographer. Jonah was once a fairly skilled rogue and acrobat from his adventuring days, but most of this agility has left him in his old age. During his final expedition before his retirement he was struck in his left eye by a needle trap in an Anubi temple, leaving it blind. He can now mostly be seen ambling around the College grounds with his cane, or in the library or his study with his nose in some book or scroll. He has been known to provide information about Anubi to adventurers as he loves any oppurtunity to talk about his life's work, especially if bribed with a cup of tea from his favorite stall down the hill from the College. See Also *Ancient Anubi *Temple Hill College Category:Notable People Category:Orcans